Merchandise display wheel



@d. 26, 1937. H 3 f T 2,097,355

MERCHANDISE DISPLAY WHEEL Filed Nov. 12, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet l 0st. 26, 1937., H. c. TRAUC'HT 2,097,355

MERCHANDISE DISPLAY WHEEL Filed Nov. 12, 1954, 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Oct. 26, 1937 UNITED S'E'A'E'ES assists PATENT err-ice 8 Claims.

This invention relates to a merchandise display wheel and has for an object the provision of means for quickly and easily displaying wall paper, yard goods, oil cloth, and other similar types of merchandise which generally come in sheet material form.

At present the common way for displaying wall paper for instance is to make up books of samples, each sample being generally about twelve to eighteen inches square thus providing a rather bulky sample book. In looking through the sample book in order to select a desired piece of wall paper it is necessary to: thumb over each page individually and only one sample of wall paper can be observed at a time. Yard goods and oil cloth are generally displayed to the public by merely pulling down the bolt of material and displaying it to the customer and if not satisfactory selecting another bolt of material at random and displaying that to the customer. This of course means a great deal of work for the clerk and in addition consumes a great deal of time both on the part of the customer and on the part of the store clerk.

This invention eliminates this time consuming, tiring, and unnecessary work by mounting samples of the material for display on a rotary wheel so that a small portion of each material is visible at all times and any desired material may be quickly selected and the entire sample be displayed so as to enable a better and quicker selection to be made. Instead of looking at a single piece of material at a time the customer may look at a display wheel having from forty to fifty or more samples displayed simultaneously, a small portion of each sample being visible, and then when a tentative selection is made of any one material that particular sample may be com,- pletely displayed by merely folding over a few of the adjoining samples allowing the tentatively selected samples to be fully displayed;

A further object of this invention is to provide a rotary merchandise display wheel having means for assembling as many samples thereon as may be desired and then for rotatively mounting the wheel so that it may be brought to a stop! at any desired position and frictionally held in that position while a tentatively selected sample of material is more fully displayed.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, as will hereinafter become apparent, this invention comprises the constructions, combinations, and arrangements of parts, hereinafter set forth, disclosed and shown on the accompanying drawings. In the drawings,

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 33 of Figure 2,

Figure 4 is a plan view of the sheets being placed on the discs,

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the support or pivot shaft,

Figure 6 is a perspective view of the sheet supporting arm, and

Figure 7 is a plan View of one of the sheets.

There is shown at Iii the merchandise display wheel constituting this invention. The entire device is mounted on a substantially heavy tripod II from which depends three tripod legs l2, l3 and M of any desired length and adapted to rest on any suitable floor, table, or other supporting surface I5.

In order to support the device at any desired angle the head and legs will preferably be of solid metal, but the displaying elements will be of light material so as not to overbalance the device. Secured to the top of the head II by a stud bolt I6 is a U-bracket i'l through which is adjustably secured the wheel supporting shaft 18 by means of a pivoting bolt l9 extending through the opposite sides of the U-bracket II and the eyed T-head 2!] of the shaft l8.

This shaft i8 is adapted to rotatably receive the display disc member or wheel 2! thereon. This display wheel 2! includes a plurality of spider arms 22 secured in a central hub 23 and a circular disc 24. Extending through the hub 23 is a sleeve 25 which is threaded at one end to receive a nut 25 and at its other end is threaded a greater distance a nut 21 being screwed over this threaded portion 28' until it abuts against the outer side of the disc 24 and secures it against the spider arm 22 and the hub 23.

In assembling the device samples of material 28, which may be wall paper, oil cloth, yard goods, screening, or any other type of sheet material are placed against the disc Z i. These samples 28 will be preferably cut out and shaped as shown in Figure '7, having an outer curved ,edge 29 forming to the outer curvature of disc 25 and an inner cut-away curved edge 3d of the curvature slightly larger than that of the outside of the nut 21, thereby enabling the samples 28 to be placed on the disc 24 and occupy the same plane as the nut 21 which holds the disc 2:2- in position.

A metal washer member 3! is then placed-or threaded over the shaft 25 until it comes into contact with the lower corner of each sample 28 and it may be more firmly held into place by means of a nut 32 threaded over the end of the shaft 25. The washer 3| will be preferably shaped as shown, the center portion of the washer being somewhat cut away as at 33 so as tocompensate for the fact that the nut 21 is generally of greater thickness than the samples of material 28.

As thus assembled the wheel 22, disc 24, samples 28, washer 3|, and sleeve 25 are all held to rotate as a unit by means of the nuts 26, 21, and 32 on the shaft IS. The washer 3| is provided with a series of ratchet depressions 34?. The shaft I8 is threaded at its end as at 34 and a part of the shaft at this threaded end is squared as at 35. This square portion 35 cooperates with a squared recess 36 formed in a flange 31 depending from the end of the sample supporting arm 38. The squared recess 36 is placed about the squared portion 35 of the shaft |8 and then looked in position thereon by means of a nut 39 screwed over the threaded portion 34 of the shaft IS.

A spring 40 is mounted in the flange 31 and its end comes into contact with the ratchet depressions 34 on the washer 3|. As will be obvious the samples 28 may be of varying thicknesses according to the particular material that is being displayed, thus, carpet samples for instance would occupy a much greater thickness than would wall paper samples and sleeves 25 of various lengths may be provided according to the thickness of the sample that is to be displayed thereon.

The shaft I8 is provided with a plurality of cotter pin receiving holes 4| through one of which will be placed the cotter pin 42. A plurality of washers 43 act as spacer means between the inner end of the sleeve 25 and the cotter pin 42.

In operation, the wheel 2| may rotate freely except for the friction provided by the spring 40 entering into the ratchet depressions 34' which thus serve to hold the display wheel 2| at any desired angle of rotation. When assembled as shown in Figure 1 the samples 28 on the display wheel will have a small portion of each one visible at all times, then, when one particular sample has been tentatively selected the display wheel 2| is rotated in a counterclockwise direction so as to bring the selected sample here designated as 288 to the topmost position. Then the adjacent samples to the left of the sample 288 are folded down over the sample supporting arm 28 allowing the full portion of sample 288 to be visible, the supporting arm 38 serving to hold the remaining samples from crumpling or crushing and further serving to automatically restore the samples to their display position against the wheel as the wheel is afterwards rotated further in this same anti-clockwise direction.

The ratchet formed by spring 40 and depression 34 serves to hold the wheel at any particular angle of rotation with the selected sample 288 prominently displayed at the top. Obviously, the sample and the supporting arm can be so mounted on the wheel so that the direction of rotation may be clockwise instead of anti-clockwise.

Each sample may have a catalogue number or other identifying character such as at 44 placed on the back thereof.

The novel features and the operation of this device will be apparent from the foregoing description. While the device has been shown and the structure described in detail, it is obvious that this is not to be considered limited to the exact form disclosed and that changes may be made therein within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus set forth and disclosed the nature of this invention, what is claimed is:

1 A merchandise display device comprising a rotary disc member, means for securing a plurality of merchandise portions in partially overlapped position on the surface of said rotary disc member, means for rotatably supporting said rotary disc member, and means secured on said rotative supporting means for supporting portions of merchandise folded away from the surface of said rotative disc member permitting a selected sample to be more fully displayed.

2. A merchandise display device comprising a rotary disc member, means for securing a plurality of merchandise portions in partially overlapped position on the surface of said rotary disc member, means for rotatably supporting said rotary disc member, and means secured on said rotative supporting means for supporting portions of merchandise folded away from the surface of said rotative disc member permitting a selected sample to be more fully displayed, and cooperative ratchet means on said folded merchandise portion supporting means and said display disc member holding said display disc member at any selected angle of rotation.

3. A merchandise display device comprising a rotary disc member, means for securing a plurality of merchandise portions in partially overlapped position on the surface of said rotary disc member, means for rotatably supporting said rotary disc member, means secured on said rotative supporting means for supporting portions of merchandise folded away from the surface of said rotative disc member permitting a selected sample to be more fully displayed, tripod means, and means adjustably securing said rotative display disc member supporting means on said tripod support means at any desired angle.

4. A merchandise display device comprising a rotary member, means for securing a plurality of merchandise portions in partially overlapped position on the surface of said rotary member, and means for rotatably supporting said rotary member, said rotative display member comprising a hub, a spider on said hub, a disc, a sleeve extending through said hub and disc, and nut means threaded on said sleeve securing said disc to said hub and said spider.

5. A merchandise display device comprising a rotary member, means for securing a plurality of merchandise portions in partially overlapped position on the surface of said rotary member, means for rotatably supporting said rotary member, said rotative display member comprising a hub, a spider on said hub, a disc, a sleeve extending through said hub and disc, and nut means threaded on said sleeve securing said disc to said hub and said spider, said disc being adapted to receive a plurality of merchandise portions or samples in partially overlapped relation thereon, a washer member, and means for securing said washer member on said sleeve in firm contact with a small section of each overlapped merchandise portion.

6. A merchandise display device comprising a rotary member, means for securing a plurality of merchandise portions in partially overlapped position on the surface of said rotary member, means for rotatably supporting said rotary member, said rotative display member comprising a hub, a spider on said hub, a disc, a sleeve extending through said hub and. disc, and nut means threaded on said sleeve securing said disc to said hub and said spider, said disc being adapted to receive a plurality of merchandise portions or samples in partially overlapped relation thereon, a washer member, means for securing said washer member on said sleeve in firm contact with a small section of each overlapped merchandise portion, a supporting shaft extending through said sleeve, a folded merchandise portion supporting arm, and means securing said folded merchandise portion supporting arm on said shaft allowing a plurality of merchandise portions to be folded away from the display surface to more completely display a selected merchandise portion.

7. A merchandise display device comprising a rotary member, means for securing a plurality of merchandise portions in partially overlapped position on the surface of said rotary member, means for rotatably supporting said rotary member, said rotative display member comprising a hub, a spider on said hub, a disc, nut means threaded on said sleeve securing said disc to said hub and said spider, said disc being adapted to receive a plurality of merchandise portions or samples in partially overlapped relation thereon, a Washer member, means for securing said washer member on said sleeve in firm contact with a small section of each overlapped merchandise portion, a supporting shaft extending through said sleeve, a folded merchandise portion supporting arm, means securing said folded merchandise portion supporting arm on said shaft allowing a plurality of merchandise portions to be folded away from the display surface to more completely display a selected merchandise portion, said Washer member having a plurality of ratchet impressions about the periphery thereof, and a ratchet spring extending from said folded over merchandise portion supporting arm yieldably holding said display wheel against rotation.

8. A merchandise display device comprising a rotary member, means for securing a plurality of merchandise portions in partially overlapped position on the surface of said rotary member, means for rotatably supporting said rotary member, said rotative display member comprising a hub, a spider on said hub, a disc, nut means threaded on said sleeve securing said disc to said hub and said spider, said disc being adapted to receive a plurality of merchandise portions or samples in partially overlapped relation thereon, a washer member, means for securing said washer member on said sleeve in firm contact with a small section of each overlapped merchandise portion, a supporting shaft extending through said sleeve, a folded merchandise portion supporting arm, means securing said folded merchandise portion supporting arm on said shaft allowing a plurality of merchandise portions to be folded away from the display surface to more completely display a selected merchandise portion, and means on said shaft adjustably positioning said display wheel on said shaft. HARLOW C. TRAUCHT. 

